KY Supreme Court justice says impeachment filing is ‘deficient, meritless’
A Kentucky Supreme Court Justice facing impeachment said the petition against her should be dismissed for a number of reasons, including that the filing was incomplete.
Justice Pamela Goodwine filed a 27-page response with Kentucky’s impeachment committee Wednesday through her attorney, Carmine Iaccarino from Lexington-based Sturgill, Turner, Baker & Moloney PLLC.
Goodwine was elected in November 2024 and became the state’s first Black female Supreme Court justice.
In October, a Louisville lawyer filed a petition to have her impeached, citing a conflict of interest in an education-related case. Goodwine was the swing vote to rehear a case last spring related to the Jefferson County Board of Education’s attempt to challenge a 2022 law that would limit its power.
In the petition against Goodwine, filed by attorney and former chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party Jack Richardson, he alleges the justice had a conflict of interest in the case since the Jefferson County teachers’ union had given large contributions to a political action committee that bought ads supporting her bid for election.
Goodwine was elected from the 5th Supreme Court District, which include Fayette and its surrounding counties.
Goodwine was not on the bench when the case was first brought before the court that decided the bill could be upheld. She voted with the majority last December in overturning the previous ruling that deemed the bill unconstitutional.
While Goodwine said her recusal was not necessary, she also said Richardson’s petition is incomplete and should be dismissed.
“The petition is deficient, meritless, and fails to justify any further impeachment inquiry,” her 27-page response said. “The Committee should dismiss the petition.”
According to state law, in order for a petition to be valid for consideration, the petitioner must supply an affidavit in addition to the petition. Richardson did not.
On Feb. 6, when the committee asked Richardson to turn in more information, he failed to do so.
Goodwine’s attorneys called Richardson’s petition a “political gamesmanship” and said that, if entertained by the committee, will open up more petitions for people who simply disagree.
“The Kentucky Supreme Court should not be the subject of the sort of gamesmanship that Mr. Richardson’s petition will invite,” the response said. “To impeach a Justice of the Supreme Court — let alone remove her — based on an independent expenditure by a non-party to the litigation at issue and in which no party to that litigation moved for recusal, would weaponize the recusal and removal process itself.”
“If such tactics are allowed to work in the judicial branch, rest assured, they will be tried elsewhere,” the response continued.
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